Does the grant to the Marrickville Golf Club pass the pub test? Image: Marrickville Golf Club.
Labor members, and in particular Anthony Albanese, are desperately hoping scrutiny will end over the multi-million dollar grant to a golf club where the Prime Minister holds an honorary membership – but it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
After days of questioning in both chambers of parliament, the Senate voted late on Monday (14 September) to hold an inquiry into the Federal Government’s Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program and allegations of pork-barrelling.
Of most public interest are three grants for projects in the PM’s electorate of Grayndler, especially a $6 million one to the Marrickville Golf Club, of which the Prime Minister holds an honorary membership he says he didn’t even know he was given.
Needless to say, the golf club membership, which Albanese says is only valued at $5 a year anyway, has gone undeclared.
But the government isn’t getting away without serious explanations over the $560 million fund used to fulfil last year’s election promises.
The problem for Labor, now that it’s all come to light thanks to a Centre for Public Integrity analysis, is that the 220 grants being doled out were non-competitive – as in, by invitation only – and going overwhelmingly to seats Labor either held or believed it had a good chance of winning.
As much as the government is downplaying the issue and trying to dismiss it as “normal procedure”, the pork-barrelling accusation has been thrown and, like mud, some of it is sticking.
Labor’s outrage over the Coalition’s sports rorts scandal helped bring down the Morrison government. Albo even called for then sports minister Bridget McKenzie to be sacked over it.
Sports rorts was blatant pork-barrelling that saw the minister of the day overrule sound departmental advice and grant decisions to favour far less-deserving projects in Coalition seats.
That included a gun club in which McKenzie had an undeclared honorary membership. McKenzie was found to have breached ministerial standards and was forced to resign from Cabinet.
Parliamentary scrutiny was intense and rightly so; the Coalition paid a heavy price for the arrogance.
Now Labor has some reckoning of its own to deal with; and again, rightly so.
The Coalition joined the Greens in the Senate on Monday, along with One Nation and independent senators Jacqui Lambie and the ACT’s David Pocock, to establish an inquiry.
It will run for a couple of months and report back by 18 November.
And the senators have some serious questions they want answered.
They want to know exactly how the process worked to decide who was invited to apply for a grant and which projects were deemed worthy.
They will inquire into conflicts of interest – perceived, actual, potential – on the part of Labor MPs and, for ministers, whether the code of conduct was breached in any of those instances.
The PM’s role, if he had any, will be particularly scrutinised.
He told parliament on Monday that Infrastructure Minister Catherine King was the decision-maker for the grants.
The government now finds itself in an uncomfortable position, because the inquiry will keep the issue front and centre in the public debate.
That, in turn, will keep the bigger test for the government alive and well: the pub test.
Labor tried and failed to amend the Senate inquiry’s terms of reference to include consideration of previous grants schemes and what the Auditor-General had to say about them.
As cynical a move as it was on the government’s part, you can’t blame it for trying to keep the distaste of the Coalition’s sports rorts fresh in voters’ mouths.
But this one is entirely for Labor to explain.
Greens democracy spokesperson Steph Hodgins-May, who drove the push for the inquiry, even used the “h” word to correctly describe where Labor currently finds itself over the issue.
“Labor knows its hypocrisy is going to be in the spotlight, and that’s why it voted against this inquiry,” Senator Hodgins-May said.
“In 2020, Labor rightly established a Senate select committee to scrutinise the Morrison government’s sports rorts scandal. They thought it was right to scrutinise the allocation of public money then, so they should stand by those principles now.
“This inquiry will shine a light on how this grants program was administered, who was invited to apply, who was locked out, how recipients were selected and whether conflicts of interest were properly declared.
“An increasingly secretive government that is losing the trust of Australians should welcome scrutiny, not run from it.
“When basically the entire crossbench and the Coalition come together to demand answers, Labor should take notice.”
Those words pretty much put it in a nutshell.
Beer nuts, that is, along with a lager or chardy in pubs right around the country. Maybe even an Albo Pale Ale at a certain golf club.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
